Sounds For My Soul (Present Favorites), Pt. VIII

Here’s a confession of mine: I’m not a big fan of worship music. Seriously. Not unusual really, but it’s only slightly odd with me because the majority of music I play and have played has been worship music. I was worse several years ago. I didn’t buy worship albums so I didn’t really know what was new, what was current or anything like that. And I didn’t really care. Since then, I’ve been better about knowing what’s out there and keeping track of the trends. I still can’t say that I’m a huge fan of a lot of it though I do enjoy and keep up with the Hillsong and United releases and I try to be aware of what Tomlin songs are out there, etc. I do accumulate a lot of worship albums but it’s mostly for the sake of reference. I want to be aware of what’s out there so I’m ready to recall and play a song at a moment’s notice.

I think part of the issue with me is that it feels like a lot of artists are releasing worship albums for the sake of releasing worship albums. It’s not that they’ve crafted a number of songs they feel are inspired and will help lead people into worship but it’s more that they’ve been given a deadline by their label and they have to have a certain number of songs ready to go.

Sometimes it feels like an album is written with the mindset that if a tune contains “Jesus” enough times it becomes an acceptable worship song. That’s fine. What bugs me is the lack of respect given to the art. Fresh, creative writing is thrown out for trite, recycled phrases and lyrics that no longer possess any flavor and now only serve to make the rest of the track more bland.

There’s the other extreme of writers who try too hard to be different and fresh and they end up with a worship song that people have a hard time worshipping with. It’s a tricky balance, sure. But we all expect no less than creative masterpieces from artists bringing us other genres of music; why do we let “worship artists” get away with being lazy?

I have strayed far from my point, sorry. So yeah, I’m not always crazy about worship music. However, for today’s “Sounds For My Soul,” I bring you a track from one of my favorite worship albums.

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I was introduced to Jason Upton‘s album Faith sometime in 2002. I’m not sure why it stuck with me the way it did but I’ve only grown more fond of it since then. It isn’t a modern worship wonder. It isn’t filled with innovative songs and sounds. It doesn’t contain masterful musicianship. It doesn’t even make for the best soundtrack to a cool, youth worship video.

Here is what it is: It’s a very flow-y, raw (and not just in the cool sense) prophetic-style worship record. There’s a purity in it and a sincerity that I connect with. I have other albums of Upton’s and, while they have the same traits, they don’t hit me the same as Faith.

I know it’s not for everyone. A lot of people don’t get into this style very easily. And that’s perfectly understandable.

This album is so significant to me that I’ve placed it as part of my Desert Island collection. You know – if you were stranded on a deserted island and you could only bring three CDs with you, what would they be? My other two are constantly different at any given moment but I’m quite certain that Faith would have to be one that comes with me. And it’s also not that I listen to the album a whole lot either. It definitely doesn’t get as much play time as other records. But it’s a great go-to worship album for me. So I gotta have it ready to go when I need it.